Privatization and Its Limits in Central and Eastern Europe: Property Rights in Transition (Studies in Economic Transition)

Hella Engerer analyzes the emergence, evolution, and theory of property rights and establishes the limits for privatization of state-owned enterprises in the transitional economies of Eastern Europe. She counters the assumption that reduction of the state sector helps to create the basis for a private property system, showing that privatization presupposes a stable framework for property. This is a major contribution to the understanding of the emerging economic order of Central and Eastern Europe. Hella Engerer analyses the emergence, evolution and theory of property rights and establishes the limits for privatization of state owned enterprises in the transitional economies of Eastern Europe. She counters the assumption that reduction of the state sector helps to create the basis for a private property system, showing that privatization actually presupposes a stable framework including property order. She makes use of an outstanding methodological approach, reaching well beyond the limits of pure economic observation. This is a major contribution to the understanding of the emerging economic order of Central and Eastern Europe. This text analyzes the emergence, evolution and theory of property rights and establishes the limits for privatization of state owned enterprises in the transitional economies of eastern Europe. It counters the assumption that reduction of the state sector helps to create the basis for a private property system, showing that privatization actually presupposes a stable framework including property order. The book makes use of an outstanding methodological approach, reaching well beyond the limits of pure economic observation. This book contributes to the understanding of the emerging economic order of central and eastern Europe At first, this project was intended to be a study on transition and privatization in Romania, a country viewed with suspicion even today, due to its past, and considered a "taboo-zone", that seems to forbid even the slightest interest.